Rheinmetall technology gets civil aviation planes aloft – air start units for America

The Düsseldorf-based technology group has once again been selected to supply air start units for use at US airports. Awarded in May 2017, the order is in the single-digit million-euro region.

Rheinmetall’s MSU 200 is a gas turbine-powered air start unit that uses highly compressed air to start military and civilian aircraft engines. With around 1,100 units sold in over forty countries, Rheinmetall is now a globally established supplier of air start units.

The MSU 200’s drive concept, which generates an air mass flow of 200 pounds per minute, is one of a kind worldwide. Besides helping them to start their engines, the units also supply compressed air for running the air conditioning system on board the aircraft.

Airports have to have air start units ready in case a plane’s auxiliary power unit, or APU, fails, making external help necessary to start the engines.

The service life of a Rheinmetall MSU 200 is approximately twenty years. For operators, this makes them an economical and dependable solution.

Rheinmetall has been successfully serving the ground support equipment (GSE) market since 1996. Every year, some sixty systems leave the Rheinmetall plant in Kiel, Germany.

A globe-spanning group specializing in mobility and security, Rheinmetall drew on company-internal know-how to establish itself as a leading supplier of pneumatic start systems for the world’s airports.